...: Marsh Chatter

Happy Turkey Day

Looking forward to another Thanksgiving. We love Turkey and the fixin's. Hope your celebration is a good one and that you have the opportunity to share it with family & friends.

Posted:
11/26/2008 8:24:02 PM.
U.S. Events

KWings Support Pets!

Woot!

KWings (Kalamazoo Wings) are supporting the SPCA of Kalamazoo by providing full ticket vouchers to the SPCA. Hockey fans in Kalamazoo can purchase the vouchers at: SPCA - for a measly 7 buckaroos. That's right, $7 gets you great hockey action and supports the SPCA, to boot.

Great seats and games! Very worthwhile cause!

My suggestion: add to the support... pay the SPCA the full price for the tickets - only 5-8 bucks more per ticket. That will help them provide more services. You might even be able to claim the donation to reduce your taxes (e.g. see your tax advisor, cause I'm not!).

Tickets can be picked up at the SPCA offices (e.g. locations via website) or at their website. SPCA website

Posted:
11/22/2008 10:40:44 PM.
Charity Work, Hockey

Milestone Reached: online entry

The Marsh has reached a new milestone. I can now edit postings online, which should help me post more frequently AND certainly make it easier!

On tap next, hopefully over the Thanksgiving break: ability to enter comments for postings.

Thank you for stopping by to see what's up in the Marsh.

Posted:
11/22/2008 5:55:23 PM.
The Marsh

Information Technology: Different Paths - A Recap

Wow what a night. The chapter hosted an audience of 18. Most were students in the chapter; but, several former students of the college returned for the evening, including several who have been in my courses.

My discussion was titled: Information Technology: Different Paths. My goal of the session was to relate to students who go part time or who are experiencing life changes as a result of economic downturn. My approach was to discuss my own travels to this point in time. This involved part time college, degree change, job departure due to unethical bosses (e.g. making the tough choice), and life in Info Tech.

Information Technology jobs are fun, cool, and important in business. A good way to succeed is to "know stuff", to be involved in the company, to network in your community, and even to have some "OOBE" - which the 18 in the audience learned was "Out-Of-the-Box-Experiences".

OOBE's are doing things other than "tech". Going camping, wandering through a library or museum, sailing, skiing, or scuba diving. You have to have down time - but you also don't want to lose focus on your goals. Especially as a student, your goal is to learn and to get your certificate or degree in a reasonable period of time. OOBE's are not spending 10-12 hours playing the latest fad game. Addictions do not move you ahead in business or life. Overcome & Get Focused.

I discussed several experiences with hardware and software. Some were: creative ways to save money, calculating ROI to help pick the right equipment, saving time by using programming, and odd hardware failures. I also related my "out-in-left-field" approach to the people we serve - specifically how we in I.T. respond to them (see Definitions: "User...").

I wrapped up by discussing networking opportunities. This included:

Continued participation in local community groups - tech related or not. Get out and meet people.

I consider the evening a success because there was continued conversation for about another 45 minutes; which included several students commenting how their own experiences are similar and several wanting to know more about Give Camp. Hooray!

I enjoyed the evening and had fun not only putting together the topic points, but also delivering it. I am glad others found commonality and hope it provides the push they need to stay focused, to learn, and to succeed.

Posted:
11/15/2008 12:00:00 AM.
Speaking/Presentations

The Few, The Proud: Happy Birthday!

233 Years

That's the number of years the Marines have been ready, willing, and able to protect the citizens of the United States of America.

In recent years, they have been called upon to extend that protection to our friends around the world. The Marines have answered the call; from combat to peaceful missions.

A big Happy Birthday wish goes out to all Marines… Signed… a former Sailor!

Demise of SaveTheDevelopers.org

YES… that's right! This website that enabled one-stop-clicking to the major browsers AND the supporting reasons why people should update their browsers - is no longer available.

Yes the link works - but it has been shifted (e.g. corrupted) to point solely to Microsoft's Internet Explorer site. While that is a good thing, as people with IE outnumber other browsers… the site previously enabled people using other browsers to 'click to' those other browsers.

Or see the Browsers - update yours today! link in my Links section. Or Click here to view my first post about supporting browsers.

Posted:
11/8/2008 12:00:00 AM.
Browsers

Information Technology: Many Different Paths

I have been invited to speak to a student group, where I teach - Friday, November 14th. This group is very active and has won awards at the National Conferences in the past. Several of my former students have participated and/or led the group over the years.